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brothers of the emperor Theodore, the sebastokrators Alexios and Isaakios. For as soon as their brother the emperor died, they took his daughter Eudokia and planned to flee to Constantinople; but they failed in their purpose, and they departed as fugitives. So when the battle was joined in the region of Poimanenon, where the church of the archistrategos of the heavenly powers, Michael, is established, the emperor won a decisive victory, although most of the Romans were almost defeated at first, but the emperor himself with very few men achieved the entire victory; for he himself took up a spear and struck an enemy and showed a courageous spirit in that war, not unknown even before this. Such a victory, then, led to the great increase of the Romans' power, and to the constriction and downfall of the Italians. For the emperor held their better men as prisoners in such a war, and indeed also the Laskaris brothers, whom he blinded, having found them guilty of charges; and others became the work of the sword; and those who did not join the war were seized by cowardice. And a part of the Italians at that time besieging the castle of Serres, which was ruled by Theodore Komnenos, when it learned of such a defeat of their own people, fled, leaving Serres free; for it had come very close to being captured. From this point the affairs of the Italians, being divided on this side and that, both in the east and the west, and stumbling against strong adversaries, both the emperor John and Theodore Komnenos, this man also being styled emperor, began to collapse. At once, then, the emperor John, since he had destroyed the Italians in the aforesaid place, besieged the Roman fortresses held by them, and captured them with no one at all to help them. For up to a certain point those in the fortresses held out; but when the emperor made the sieges longer, and especially also at the wrong season—for not in spring or summer or autumn, but in the middle of winter he made his attacks—and he set up siege engines and cast down the battlements, those within grew weary and on the one hand surrendered, buying their lives with oaths, while on the other hand some fell in battle and were confined as prisoners. So there were captured by the emperor Poimanenon, Lentiana, Charioros, Berbeniakon. So the emperor John, fighting against the Latins in every way, both built triremes and stationed them around the Hellespont in a place which is called Holkos; and he was causing them much trouble, setting out towards the west and taking their possessions as booty, and sacking the city of the Madytians and Kallipolis and all the coastal regions that were subject to the Italians.

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While the emperor John was engaged in these things and fighting fiercely against the Italians both on land and sea, a plot was contrived against him. The one who organized this was the first cousin of the emperor, Andronikos Nestongos. This man, considering the bond of kinship as nothing and having broken the tie of friendship, planned a rebellion against his first cousin the emperor, having as a collaborator in this his brother Isaakios and not a few others of the nobles, both Phlamoules, whom the emperor had honored as megas hetaireiarches, Tarchaneiotes, Synadenos, his brother-in-law Stasenos, Makrenos and others in large number. The plot went on for many days and escaped the emperor's notice. But while staying in Lampsakos he learns of these things. So, having consumed the triremes with fire, so that they might not fall into the hands of the Italians, and judging the internal war more urgent than the external one, departing from there he arrived near Achyraous and there he conducted the investigation of the plot. And all the conspirators were liable to punishment. But the emperor applied the laws more humanely, and Nestongos Isaakios he condemns to blinding and the cutting off of his hands, and likewise also the

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βασιλέως Θεοδώρου αὐτάδελ φοι, οἱ σεβαστοκράτορες Ἀλέξιός τε καὶ Ἰσαάκιος. οὗτοι γὰρ ἅμα τῷ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτῶν βασιλέα θανεῖν τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ Εὐδοκίαν λαβόντες ἀποδρᾶναι πρὸς τὴν Κωνσταντι νούπολιν ἐβουλεύσαντο· ἀλλὰ τοῦ μὲν σκοποῦ αὐτῶν ἥμαρ τον, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ δραπέται ᾤχοντο. τῆς μάχης οὖν συρρα γείσης ἐν τοῖς μέρεσι τοῦ Ποιμανηνοῦ, ὅπου καὶ ὁ ναὸς τοῦ ἀρχιστρατήγου τῶν ἄνω δυνάμεων ἐγκαθίδρυται Μιχαήλ, νικᾷ κατὰ κράτος ὁ βασιλεύς, τῶν μὲν πλείστων Ῥωμαίων σχεδὸν ἐξηττημένων τὸ πρῶτον, αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως μετ' ὀλίγων πάνυ τὴν νίκην ἐξειργασμένου πᾶσαν· αὐτός τε γὰρ δόρατος ἥψατο καὶ πολέμιον ἔβαλε καὶ ἀνδρεῖον ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ πολέμῳ φρόνημα ἐνεδείξατο, οὐδὲ τοῖς πρὸ τοῦ ἀγνοούμενον. ἡ τοιαύτη γοῦν νίκη εἰς μεγάλην αὔξησιν ἐγεγόνει τῆς τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῆς, τῶν Ἰταλῶν δὲ συστολὴν καὶ κατάπτωσιν. τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ζωγρίας τοὺς κρείττους αὐ τῶν ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ πολέμῳ κατέσχεν ὁ βασιλεύς, ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ τοὺς αὐταδέλφους Λασκάριας, οὓς τυφλοῖ ἐπ' αἰτίαις εὑρών· ἄλλοι δὲ ξίφους ἔργον ἐγένοντο· οἱ δὲ μὴ συνιόντες τῷ πολέμῳ δειλίᾳ κάτοχοι ἐγεγόνεισαν. καὶ μέρος δὲ τῶν Ἰταλῶν τὸ τῶν Σερρῶν κάστρον τῷ τότε πολιορκοῦν ὑπὸ τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ Θεοδώρου δεσποζόμενον, ἐπεὶ τὴν τῶν οἰκείων τοιαύτην ἐπέγνωκεν ἧτταν, ἀπέδρα ἐλευθέρας τὰς Σέρρας καταλιπόν· ἐς μικρὸν γὰρ αὐτῷ κομιδῇ τοῦ ἁλῶναι ἦλθον. ἐντεῦθεν τὰ τῶν Ἰταλῶν ἔνθεν κἀκεῖθεν διαιρούμενα κατά τε τὴν ἕω καὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν καὶ ἰσχυροῖς ἀντιπάλοις προσ πταίοντα, τῷ τε βασιλεῖ Ἰωάννῃ καὶ τῷ Κομνηνῷ Θεοδώρῳ, βασιλεῖ φημιζομένῳ καὶ τουτωΐ, ἀπήρχοντο καταπίπτειν. αὐτίκα γοῦν ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰωάννης, ἐπειδὴ τοὺς Ἰταλοὺς ἐν τῷ εἰρημένῳ τόπῳ καταλελύκει, τὰ ὑπ' ἐκείνων κρατούμενα τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἐπολιόρκει φρούρια, καὶ ἥλισκε ταῦτα μηδενὸς τελοῦντος τοῦ βοηθήσοντος. μέχρι μὲν γάρ τινος οἱ ἐν τοῖς φρουρίοις ἀντείχοντο· ὡς δὲ χρονιωτέρους ἐποίει τὰς πολιορκίας ὁ βασιλεύς, μάλιστα δὲ καὶ παρακαιρίους- οὐ γὰρ ἐν ἔαρι ἢ θέρει ἢ μετοπώρῳ, ἀλλ' ἐν μέσῳ χειμῶνος τὰς ἐφόδους ἐποιεῖτο- ἑλεπόλεις τε συνίστα καὶ τὰς ἐπάλ ξεις κατέβαλλεν, ἀποκάμνοντες οἱ ἐντὸς τὰ μὲν προυδίδουν ὅρκοις τὴν ζωὴν ἐξωνούμενοι, ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἔπιπτον μάχῃ καὶ καθείργνυντο ὡς δεσμῶται. ἑάλω γοῦν ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως Ποιμανηνὸν Λεντιανὰ Χαρίορος Βερβενίακον. ὁ γοῦν βα σιλεὺς Ἰωάννης παντοίως τοῖς Λατίνοις μαχόμενος τριήρεις τε κατεσκεύασε καὶ περὶ τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον ταύτας ἔστησεν ἐν τόπῳ, ὃς Ὁλκὸς ὀνομάζεται· καὶ ἦν πολλὰ παρέχων αὐτοῖς πράγματα, κατὰ δύσιν ὁρμώμενος καὶ λείαν τἀκείνων ποιού μενος πορθῶν τε τὸ τῶν Μαδύτων ἄστυ καὶ τὴν Καλλιού πολιν καὶ τὰ παραιγιάλια πάντα τοῖς Ἰταλοῖς ὑπόφορα ὄντα.

23 Ἐν τουτοισὶ δὲ ὄντος τοῦ βασιλέως Ἰωάννου καὶ ἀκρατῶς μαχομένου τοῖς Ἰταλοῖς κατά τε χέρσον καὶ θά λατταν, σκευωρεῖται τούτῳ ἐπιβουλή. ὁ δὲ ταύτην συστησά μενος πρωτεξάδελφος ἦν τοῦ βασιλέως ὁ Νεστόγγος Ἀνδρό νικος. οὑτοσὶ δὲ καὶ τὴν τῆς συγγενείας σχέσιν παρ' οὐδὲν θέμενος καὶ τὸν τῆς φιλίας ἀπορρήξας δεσμὸν ἀν ταρσίαν κατὰ τοῦ πρωτεξαδέλφου βασιλέως βεβούληται, ἔχων τε συνεργὸν εἰς τοῦτο τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰσαάκιον καὶ ἑτέ ρους τῶν ἐπιφανῶν οὐκ ὀλίγους, τόν τε Φλαμούλην, ὃν μέ γαν ἑταιρειάρχην ὁ βασιλεὺς τετίμηκε, τὸν Ταρχανειώτην, τὸν Συναδηνόν, τὸν ἐπ' ἀδελφῇ τούτου γαμβρὸν Στασηνόν, τὸν Μακρηνὸν καὶ ἄλλους εἰς πλῆθος τὸν ἀριθμόν. ἐγένετο δὲ ἡ ἐπιβουλὴ πολυήμερος καὶ τὸν βασιλέα ἐλάνθανεν. ἐν τῇ Λαμψάκῳ δὲ διάγων μανθάνει ταῦτα. πυρὶ γοῦν τὰς τριήρεις καταναλώσας, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς Ἰταλοῖς ὑπὸ χεῖρα γέ νοιντο, καὶ προυργιαίτερον τὸν ἔσωθεν πόλεμον κρίνας τοῦ ἔξωθεν, ἀπάρας ἐκεῖθεν περὶ τὴν Ἀχυράους ἀφίκετο κἀκεῖσε τὴν ἐξέτασιν τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς ἐποιήσατο. καὶ ἦσαν οἱ συνω μόται πάντες ταῖς δίκαις ὑπεύθυνοι. ἀλλ' ὁ βασιλεὺς φιλαν θρωπότερον τοῖς νόμοις ἐχρήσατο, καὶ τὸν μὲν Νεστόγγον Ἰσαάκιον τυφλώσει καταδικάζει καὶ χειροκοπίᾳ, ὡσαύτως καὶ τὸν